Due to industrialization that had put priorities to manufacturing at the expense of services, the service sector in Korea was grossly underdeveloped up to the early 1990s. Numerous sector specific regulations and restrictions on FDI prevented competition and impeded the offering of higher value services. In 1990, the labor productivity of the Korean service subsectors was much lower than that of the advanced countries. The labor productivity of 'distribution services, etc.', in particular, was less than one-fifth that of the U.S. in 1990.Since the mid-1990s, the Uruguay Round negotiations and the OECD accession enabled the Korean government to gradually open its service sector to foreign suppliers. As a result, distribution services, business services, entertainment and recreational services and other personal services, in particular, have been almost completely liberalized. (The rest omitted)